Vol. xxxiii.] 2 



mentioned in the ' Garden Kalendar,' and whose grandfather 

 added the fifth bell to Selborne Church peal inj 1735 

 (' Antiquities/ Letter IV.). No trace of the Manor House 

 now remains. Continuing along the present Alton-Selborne 

 road, still spoken of in Selborne village as the 'new road/ 

 though made some seventy years ago, we next pass on the 

 right Hartley Park Farm, and shortly afterwards come to 

 Norton Farm on the same side of the road. Norton Farm is 

 mentioned in the second letter to Pennant as possessing a 

 magnificent ' broad-leaved elm ' or wyeh hazel, which, when 

 felled, produced eight loads of timber, and a very fine 

 sycamore still stands in the ' court-yard ' of the Farm. From 

 the road just above Norton Farm a charming view of Selborne 

 can be obtained. 



Shortly after passing Norton Farm a slight dip in the 

 road will be noticed, and the visitor should here carefully 

 inspect the ' Hollow Lane' running to the right and left of 

 the ' New Road.' It must be remembered that the whole 

 aspect of the country round Selborne has been changed 

 since Gilbert White's time; the present fields were then 

 small enclosures and the whole neighbourhood was far more 

 densely wooded than it is at the present day. The roads 

 were bad almost beyond belief*, the main road of Selborne 

 village was a mere cart track, ' the cart-way' White terms 

 it in the first letter to Pennant, while in the fifth letter he 

 describes the ' Hollow Lanes,' one of which was the road to 

 Alton in his day as ' by the traffic of ages and the fretting 



of water worn down so that they look more like water 



courses than roads, and in many places they are reduced 

 sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields.' As 

 has been already mentioned the present road from Alton to 

 Selborne did not exist, and the traveller had either to 

 approach Selborne by a winding ' Hollow Lane ' by West 

 Wordham and Hartley, or turning aside from the Alton- 

 Gosport road at the Horse and Jockey Inn, just short of 

 East Tisted, he could arrive at Selborne village by a very 



* Gilbert White, the vicar, left by his will £200, which was expended 

 in a solid and firm cansey (causeway), of. ' Antiquities,' Letter vi. 



